Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646-1723 London)

Portrait of William Whitmore, Esq., three-quarter-length, in a blue coat with a landscape beyond

细节

Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646-1723 London)
Portrait of William Whitmore, Esq., three-quarter-length, in a blue coat with a landscape beyond
inscribed 'Sir Godfrey Kneller Pinx.' (lower left); and 'Wm. Whitmore, Esq. Born 1682 (of Apley.) Ob. 1725 Buried at Stockton.' (lower right)
oil on canvas, unlined
50 x 40¼ in. (127 x 102.3 cm.)

拍品专文

The Whitmore family held the estate of Apley in Shropshire from 1572 and the house was re-built in a Gothick style by Thomas Whitmore in 1811. It became the inspiration for P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle, in his series of Jeeves and Wooster novels. The castle is one of Wodehouse's best-known settings with its eccentric aristocratic owner Lord Emsworth, his ten fearsome sisters and his cherished prize pig, the Empress of Blandings.